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Al Franken hasn't been a *bad* Senator... unless you were expecting a real fire-breathing progressive champion like Elizabeth Warren or Jeff Merkley. He votes well enough... and that's more than you can say for 10 Senate Democrats who have F-rated voting records or even for the half dozen who are C-rated. And you can't really blame Franken for the political calculus that saw him jump on the Hillary Clinton bandwagon. Even far better Democrats than he stepped into that open pit sewer. But... he did suck up to Chuck Schumer and endorse one of the most right-wing Democrats in the Ho...more »

Russian servisemen drive T-72 main battle tanks during a parade to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the World War Two in the Far Eastern city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Russia, September 2, 2015. REUTERS/Sergei Krasnoukhov *Reuters*: *Russia will cut defense budget by 5 percent in 2016, RIA reports* Russia’s defense budget will be cut by 5 percent in 2016, Russian Deputy Defence Minister Tatiana Shevtsova said, according to the RIA news agency. Defense spending has been growing as part of a drive by President Vladimir Putin to restore Russia’s military might. The decision to cut ...more »

In the run up to the 5th anniversary of Fukushima, I read Japan's former-Prime Minister Kan said that the loss of Tokyo was narrowly averted: Andrew Gilligan, Fukushima: Tokyo was on the brink of nuclear catastrophe, admits former prime minister. The Telegraph, March 4, 2016, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/12184114/Fukushima-Tokyo-was-on-the-brink-of-nuclear-catastrophe-admits-former-prime-minister.html# I just wonder what he possibly could have meant by "narrowly averted" given the city has hot spots measuring at levels that qualify as radioactive waste and...more »

*Reuters:* *U.S. builds two air bases in Kurdish-controlled north Syria: Kurdish report* The United States has nearly finished setting up an air base in Kurdish-controlled northern Syria and was proceeding with the construction of a second base for dual military and civilian use, a Kurdish website said on Sunday. A spokesman for U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said, however, the United States was not taking control of any airfields in Syria. The Erbil-based news website BasNews, quoting a military source in the Kurdish-backed Syria Democratic Forces (SDF), said most of the work on...more »

[image: Governor Matt Mead signs a proclamation naming April as the Month of the Military Child in Wyoming on March 24, 2015.] Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead signed a new civil asset forfeiture bill into law Feb. 29, and a close look shows that it will be a game changer for police. Civil asset forfeiture is a practice in which police can seize property and...more »

[image: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump drives himself to the golf course to watch the final round of the Cadillac Championship golf tournament, Sunday, March 6, 2016, in Doral, Fla.] WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republican leaders on Sunday grappled with the prospect that the best hope for stopping Donald Trump’s march to the nomination may be Ted Cruz -- the only candidate who causes as much heartburn among party elites as...more »

[image: In this Jan. 20, 1981, file photo, President Ronald Reagan and first lady Nancy Reagan wave to onlookers at the Capitol building as they stand at the podium in Washington following the swearing in ceremony. The former first lady has died at 94, The Associated Press confirmed Sunday, March 6, 2016.] LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Those who worked with former US President Ronald Reagan say Nancy Reagan was intelligent and loyal to her husband. As first lady, Mrs. Reagan was a trusted adviser and held backstage power in the Reagan administration, which began...more »

*Reuters*:* Islamic State truck bomb kills at least 60 people south of Baghdad* A truck bomb at an Iraqi checkpoint south of Baghdad killed at least 60 people and wounded more than 70 on Sunday, medical and security officials said, and Islamic State claimed responsibility for the blast. The suicide attack, involving an explosive-laden fuel tanker, is the second deadliest this year after one on Feb. 28 that killed 78 people in Sadr City, a Shi'ite district of Baghdad. This was also claimed by the ultra-hardline Sunni group that controls vast swathes of territory in Iraq and in Syr...more »

*BBC:** North Korea threatens US and South with nuclear strikes* North Korea has threatened "indiscriminate" nuclear strikes against South Korea and the US if they push ahead with joint military drills. The exercises, set to involve tens of thousands of troops, are an annual manoeuvre and always generate tension. The order for a "pre-emptive nuclear strike of justice" was made in a statement put out by Pyongyang. Such rhetoric is not uncommon and experts doubt the North's ability to put nuclear warheads on its missiles. Last year, North Korea threatened to turn Washington into a ...more »

------------------------------ ------------------------------ *Murder Is Washington’s Foreign Policy — Paul Craig Roberts * ------------------------------ March 4, 2016 | Original Here | Use original if you wish to receive his newsletter via email Murder Is Washington’s Foreign Policy Paul Craig Roberts Washington has a long history of massacring people, for example, the destruction of the Plains Indians by the Union war criminals Sherman and Sheridan and the atomic bombs dropped on Japanese civilian populations, but Washington has progressed from periodic massacres to fullt...more »

We've mentioned that Republican obstructionism over the Supreme Court vacancy could hurt some of the Republican Senate incumbents, particularly Chuck Grassley in Iowa, who the DSCC had originally declared invulnerable. No one thinks he's invulnerable any longer and support is building for progressives Tom Fiegen and Rob Hogg, while the DSCC found themselves a Monsanto-backed corprate shill to get behind. PPP Senate results of surveys in four states bolsters the possibility that the GOP's bitter obstructionism against Obama is something they could pay for very dearly in November. ...more »

[image: Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, pumps his fist as he arrives for at a rally at the Macomb Community College, Saturday, March 5, 2016, in Warren, Mich.] WASHINGTON (AP) -- Bernie Sanders wins the Democratic presidential caucuses in Maine, adding an 8th state to his total in the 2016 race for president. Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,...more »

*Some corrupt conservatives thought of a way to save some money* I don't remember the last time I drank tap water in Los Angeles, which is probably because I never did. Over the weekend the Associated Press put out a feature emphasizing a poll that found that only 47% of Americans say they're extremely or very confident about the safety of their drinking water. The lead-contaminated water in Flint, Michigan, has been in the headlines for months, and more than half of Americans believe it's a sign of widespread problems in the U.S. About seven in 10 drink tap water, but about half ...more »

*Luis Alberto Moreno, Project Syndicate:* *A Latin American Spring?* WASHINGTON, DC – As corruption scandals rattle Latin America, many observers are asking if the region will ever shake off its legacy of weak institutions. I believe the answer is yes. My optimism is based partly on the history of the United States, founded by leaders who were highly concerned about corruption; by some accounts, they devised the Constitution with the specific goal of vaccinating the new republic against vice. Despite their efforts, however, the US government soon became as venal as any of the old r...more »

A Hezbollah funeral for one of its fighters killed in Syria. (YouTube/Channel 4 News) *NOW:* *Hezbollah’s Shiite catch* *“Hezbollah will not be destroyed; but it will change”* “Hezbollah is transforming. It has to change, because we are changing,” says Karim, with the authority of an accomplished expert. Although he is still 18 years old, Karim has already trained and fought with Hezbollah in Syria, gotten wounded and left the party a few weeks after his injury. His involvement in Syria’s war, in addition to the fact that he’s lived all his life in the heart of the southern suburb...more »

*An excerpt from, "Al-Nusra militants in Syria shell Turkey to prompt return fire – Russian military" RT, March 6, 2016: * *Jihadists in Syria have been shelling the Turkish area in an apparent attempt to provoke a response that could lead to Ankara sending troops into the neighboring country, according to Russia’s truce center in Syria.* “On March 6, 2016 several militants of Jabhat Al-Nusra terror group repeatedly fired mortars at Turkish territory from the area near the Syrian settlement of Metishli,” Lieutenant General Sergey Kuralenko, Head of the Center for Reconciliation, s...more »

Richard Ebeling observes that whatever you may think or have thought about Nancy Reagan, her death will undoubtedly inspire renewed thoughts about the Reagan years. His own are worth pondering: Conservatives will, generally, recall Reagan's time in the White House as a high water mark for the freedom movement in the post-World War II period. On the other hand, some libertarians will focus on the "failure" of the Reagan years -- government spending kept going growing, the deficits went on with an increasing national debt; regulations were marginally reduced, while the welfare...more »

Lebanese Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Samir Moqbel (L) speaks during a joint news conference with French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian at the Beirut airport air base during a ceremony to give weapons to the Lebanese army as part of a Saudi-funded deal worth $3 billion, April 20, 2015. (photo by REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir) Al Monitor: What is Riyadh's endgame in Lebanon? Saudi Arabia is playing a high-stakes game in Lebanon, seeking to punish and weaken Hezbollah and Iran. It's not clear if the Saudis have an achievable end goal in mind. Lebanon did not join an Arab...more »

The United States is constructing two air bases in Kurdish-controlled northern Syria. One base is nearing finished being set up and another dual purpose military-civilian base is under construction, according to a Kurdish website. Reuters UK reports: The Erbil-based news website BasNews, quoting a military source in the Kurdish-backed Syria Democratic Forces (SDF), said most of the work on a runway in the oil town of Rmeilan in Hasaka was complete while a new air base southeast of Kobani, straddling the Turkish border, was being constructed. The source in the U.S.-backed alliance th...more »

*please pray for his recovery.* *From KREM:* COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho – Coeur d’Alene police are searching for a suspect who shot a man in the parking lot of a church Sunday afternoon. Just before 2:00 p.m. police were called to the Altar Church on the corner of 9th and Best. Officials said they found a man with multiple gunshot wounds. The victim was transported to Kootenai Medical Center but his condition is unknown. A family member says the man who was shot is Tim Remington and he is a pastor at the church. He also prayed at the Ted Cruz rally on Saturday at the Kootenai County Fai...more »

Life’s natural born winner and Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, keeps racking up victories in primaries and caucuses in defiance of common wisdom, and the fact has not escaped the well established Neocons who have their own agenda for the upcoming vacancy in the White House. Neoconservative pundit Anne Applebaum predicts “the end of the West as we know it,” should the Donald trump the establishment. The Neocon’s New World Order would come to an end just as it was about to enter its zenith. Sputnik reports: On Saturday, real estate mogul Donald Trump racked up two m...more »

*Trumps numbers expected to go up again.* "He's not the real deal" "He's a phony" "Equivocating on the KKK" Everyone needs to ask the question, "Why do the elitist insider establishment hate Trump and Cruz so much?" An aside: I don't want to hear any more jokes about Trump's orange face. Romney looks like he's going to burst into flames. Doesn't anyone know how to properly apply makeup anymore? Rush's interview with Chris Wallace this morning *HERE*

*RUDAW*: *ISIS has less than 10,000 militants in Mosul, says US coalition spokesman* The spokesman for the United States-led anti-Islamic State (ISIS) coalition Col. Christopher Garver said on Friday that ISIS has less than 10,000 of its militants in Mosul. That being said he cautioned against the "optimistic estimate" that the city can be liberated and secured by the end of the year. While there have been plans to rout the group from Mosul by the end of the year Garver pointed out that the US is operating on what "is still an Iraq timeline." "Iraqis are still building the plan...more »

*From* *Jenna Orkin* Bird poop on the lines causes nuclear power shutdown DR Congo plans to open its rainforests to loggers Superbugs account for 1 in 7 hospital infections Google scrambles to figure out why self-driving car struck bus Is This The End Of CNBC As We Know It? Sweden Begins 5 Year Countdown Until It Eliminates Cash Legalizing Weed Has Done What 1 Trillion Dollars And A 40 Year War Couldn't Former-PM Admits "Future Existence Of Japan Was At Stake" As Mutations Appear In Fukushima Forest EU Bombshell: The Balkan Route To Germany Is Closed

Coalition passenger jet crash lands near #Erbil pic.twitter.com/RDgAoyBycv — Rudaw English (@RudawEnglish) March 5, 2016 *Washington Post:* *An advanced U.S. Army reconnaissance aircraft crash-landed in a field outside of Irbil in Iraqi Kurdistan on Saturday morning.* A statement from the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq confirmed the crash as an “off-airport emergency landing in a field northwest of Irbil.” None of the four passengers were injured, and the aircraft has been secured by U.S. and Kurdish forces. According to the statement, “the cause of the crash is under investigation b...more »

A Moody's sign is displayed on 7 World Trade Center, the company's corporate headquarters in New York, February 6, 2013. PHOTO: REUTERS/BRENDAN MCDERMID *Fuel Fix*: *Russia leads list of oil producers at risk of Moody’s downgrade* The credit ratings of more than 10 oil producing nations in the developing world were placed on review for a downgrade by Moody’s Investors Service, which cited the shock of depressed oil prices on these economies. The list includes Russia, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Angola, Gabon and Trinidad and Tobago, according to statements released by Moody’s on Friday i...more »

Here's a CBC report on the glowing health of the U.S. economy. It takes the official government figure, and says unemployment is down to 4.9%. http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/labour-force-united-states-economy-1.3474276 So it is, by the methods used by the department of Labor. But the Department of Labor is wrong. The real rate is over double that. And it's worse than even that might appear. Almost all of the new jobs are minimum wage. That's part of the reason why so many food stamps are being issued. And those being issued are coming nowhere close to what's needed as more of the ...more »

*Source: Dees Illustration.* *Title: Current Economic Collapse News Brief - Episode 911. Source: X22Report. Date Published: March 6, 2016. Description: * In this news brief we will discuss the latest news on the economic collapse. We look to see if things are really that different. The central bank will not stop at just confiscating your wealth they will want your life. They want to enslave the people.

*Source - The Angry Arab: * *The new leader of the Syrian National Coalition* *This new leader, Anas Al-`Abdah, is prefect for the Qatari and Saudi regimes. *He is an expert in anti-Shi`ite Islamist agitation and is the author of the famous report on the Shi`itization of the Syrian Sunni population. Media of Saudi princes was quite happy with his elevation. *Having said that, please continue to follow the lead of Liz Sly and refer to Syrian National Coalition as "secular".* If the Syrian opposition had distanced itself from Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Israel, UAE, and Qatar from the ver...more »

Under connection my brain cant hear the words collected by my reality ears My optic nerves are useless because on the central cortex only the light of beauty can fell Every word she speaks is Shakespeare and its delivered by Joan of Arc and I my soul is captured by a great white gorgeous shark man killer

“What's happening at the center of spiral galaxy M106? A swirling disk of stars and gas, M106's appearance is dominated by blue spiral arms and red dust lanes near the nucleus, as shown in the featured image. The core of M106 glows brightly in radio waves and X-rays where twin jets have been found running the length of the galaxy. *Click image for larger size.* An unusual central glow makes M106 one of the closest examples of the Seyfert class of galaxies, where vast amounts of glowing gas are thought to be falling into a central massive black hole. M106, also designated NGC 4258, i...more »

[image: Medics take care of a rescued migrant at a local hospital in the Aegean resort of Didim, Turkey, Sunday, March 6, 2016. Turkey's state-run news agency says 18 migrants have drowned off the Turkish coast while trying to reach Greece. Anadolu Agency says the coast guard rescued 15 other migrants off the Aegean Sea resort of Didim. The coast guard has launched a search-and-rescue mission for other migrants believed to be missing from the accident Sunday.] BRUSSELS (AP) -- NATO announced Sunday that it was expanding its mission to help choke off the smuggling of migrants into Eur...more »

German officials have banned the serving of ham and bacon at schools and cafeterias in fear of offending refugees. Muslims and Jews do not eat pork if they are religiously inclined. The recent influx of refugees escaping wars and economic famine has inundated Germany and Europe. Chancellor Angela Merkel initially welcomed the refugees by giving them a nod and a wink. Now that they have arrived, they seem to reveal themselves to be mostly rapists and economic migrants looking out for their own selfish selves, according to the media. The German public is getting weary with refugees an...more »

*"To Sleep, Perchance To Dream"* by Chet Raymo "To sleep, perchance to dream What is more gentle than a wind in summer? What is more soothing than a pretty hummer That stays one moment in an open flower, And buzzes cheerily from bower to bower? What is more tranquil than a musk-rose blowing In a green island, far from all men's knowing? More healthful than the leafiness of dales? More secret than a nest of nightingales? What indeed?" The poet Keats answers his own questions: Sleep. Soft closer of our eyes. I've reached an age when I find myself occasionally nodding off in the middle of...more »

Just two months ago France was among the most vocal in condemning Saudi Arabia’s New Year mass executions But on Friday the French president Francois Hollande ‘discreetly’ awarded the country’s most prestigious award, the Legion d’Honneur, to the heir to the Saudi throne, Prince Mohammed bin Naif. Zero Hedge Reports: We’ve been over and over the glaring absurdity inherent in the fact that the US and its partners consider the kingdom to be an “ally” in the fight against terrorism and you can read more in the article linked above, but the problem is quite simply this: the Saudis promo...more »

*Trump's list of enemies, from within America to Europe and the Middle East, makes him more attractive as a presidential candidate than the other buffoons on the stage. As strange as it sounds, he is the sanity vote in the 2016 presidential election. * *An excerpt from, "The Middle East reacts to Trump: ‘Strange Candidates’ with ‘Weird Beliefs’ & anti-Muslim Pogroms" by Juan Cole, March 6, 2016: * The meltdown of the US Republican Party is an unlovely sight inside the country, but what do people abroad think about the outlandish assertions of GOP frontrunner Donald Trump? Last wee...more »

*on Chris Wallace 3/6/2016.* Rush speaks common sense. You take what you get. Speaks highly of Ted Cruz. O/T - How come Chris Wallace is 68 years old and his hair color looks like it came out of a tar bucket? Just wondering.

You’ll be aware that with no real prodding whatsoever, the Key Government last week raised the minimum wage by 50 cents, to the loud cheers of economic illiterates everywhere. Here is perhaps the clearest illustration possible of how the enforced minimium wage hurts most those its supporters claim will be helped: [image: 12768166_1098264603552232_5037051789846796630_o] Not that this fact will bother the illiterates. Like their loud support for many other policies of equally destructive power, it’s more about looking good to their right-on friends than actually *doing* good for...more »

[image: maxresdefault] A House watchdog committee has demanded that the Department of Homeland Security produce accurate statistics on the persons who each year stay in the United States longer than their visas allow, some of whom conceivably pose a threat of terrorism, Rep. Mark...more »

I am at the airport in Portland, Maine heading to northern California for two days of protests at Beale AFB which hosts the Global Hawk surveillance drone and the U-2 high altitude spy plane. Regular protests have been happening at Beale for several years and loads of activists have been arrested there for their non-violent actions. This is a sort of personal trip for me as I lived on Beale from 1969-1971 when my dad was stationed there. He worked on the spy cameras on the SR-71 Blackbird plane. In 1971 I left Beale to head to the Oakland, California military induction center ...more »

[image: Nancy Reagan - 90000] Reaction has been pouring in to the death of Nancy Reagan, who has passed away today at the age of 94 from congestive heart failure. Leading the way, her stepson, talk show host Michael Reagan: I am saddened by the...more »

Iranian billionaire Babak Zanjani, has been sentenced to death for fraud and corruption. The 41-year-old was accused of pocketing $2.8bn (£2bn) from oil deals during the rule of former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad while sanctions were in place against Iran. Two of his associates were also found guilty of the more serious crime of “corruption on earth”. Sky News reports: Prosecutors claim he owed the money to Iran’s government from oil sold on behalf of the oil ministry. Zanjani, who denied any wrongdoing, insisted the only reason the money had not been paid was that sanctions had p...more »

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has brought in a Big Pharma cheerleader to lead the agency that regulates Big Pharma. In February, President Obama’s nominee Robert Califf sailed through the Senate approval process to be approved as the next FDA commissioner. Robert Califf – President Obama Califf has financial ties and some very deep connections to the pharmaceutical industry as AlterNet reports: Califf, chancellor of clinical and translational research at Duke University until recently, received money from 23 drug companies including the giants like Johnson & Johnson, Lilly, ...more »

*"Closing Cycles"* by Paulo Coelho "One always has to know when a stage comes to an end. If we insist on staying longer than the necessary time, we lose the happiness and the meaning of the other stages we have to go through. Closing cycles, shutting doors, ending chapters whatever name we give it, what matters is to leave in the past the moments of life that have finished. Did you lose your job? Has a loving relationship come to an end? Did you leave your parents house? Gone to live abroad? Has a long-lasting friendship ended all of a sudden? You can spend a long time wondering w...more »

*“Failure To See”* “Rather the flying bird, leaving no trace Than the going beast Marking the earth with his track. The bird flies by and forgets (As is only right). The beast Where he no longer is (And is therefore no use) Marks that he was there before (Which is also no use). For to remember is to betray Nature, since the nature of yesterday Is not nature. What has been, is nothing. Remembering Is failure to see. Move on, bird, move on, teach me To move on.” - Fernando Pessoa

*“Behind The Facade: America, The Bankrupt Hegemon”* by F. William Engdahl “Fantasy and fairy tales can go only so far when it comes to the true condition of anything or anyone. Sooner or later the truth must out. This is very much the case when looking at the true condition of the nation the Chinese call, The Hegemon, the not-anymore-so-United States of America. The official Obama Administration economic statistics have declared to the world for more than six years that the world’s largest paper economy was in a marvelous recovery and that unemployment was a mere 5%. Now, with the ...more »

"The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers." - M. Scott Peck

*“5 Vilest Right-Wing Moments This Week: * *The GOP's Pathetic Excuse for Trump's Dominance”* by Janet Allon "We all got to think a little too much about Donald Trump's manhood this week. No one deserves that. Of course, the state of the Republican campaign for president being what it is, Thursday night's debate was hardly the only shit show in town. Just in case you missed them, right wingers spewed a variety of vile and ridiculous things in the past few days. Here were some other less-publicized low-lights: *1. Bobby Jindal blames Obama for the rise of Trump.* "Dear Rhodes Schola...more »

By Paul Homewood Following the pause busting adjustments made by RSS, we need to keep in mind how GISS have been up to the same tricks for years. Last year, of course, they instituted the same massive set of adjustments that NOAA had done, following Thomas Karl’s efforts. However, although these were by far […]

What do Barack Obama, Adolf Hitler, Donald Trump and the Rothschild family all have in common? It sounds like the beginning of a sick joke, doesn’t it? But unfortunately it isn’t! The answer is that these elite members of the world’s most powerful club are closely related members of the same family, according to a scientific study by a Belgian team of geneticists at the University of Brussels. Proving what Illuminati watchers have known all along – that the world’s most powerful people are conspiring together to control world affairs, masterminding events and planting agents in gov...more »

A homeless man sleeping rough in Montreal owes the Government more than $110,000 in fines…for being homeless. According to a 2012 study, Montreal’s homeless owed the city $15 million in outstanding fines. Activist Post reports: The recent case of a homeless man racking up massive fines has exposed the widespread police practice of fining homeless people for being homeless. Émilie Guimond-Bélanger, a social worker at the Droits Devant legal clinic in Montreal spoke to the media about a case that she worked on where a homeless man racked up over $110,000 in tickets. “It was shocking. ...more »

*Black Man Drinking Coffee on Street* *gets followed by white Police Officer in Cincinnati, Ohio* *Domestic policy in US is reflected in racist Foreign Policy Abroad* *Victims of US Drone Attacks* In foreign vassal states of the US, four white Drone operators protest Obama's targetting innocent civilian targets...all "darkies" of course. Or, back to the US we have "Justice in Chicago" police caught on videotape erasing other videotape of them killing a black man. It all goes back to the roots of injustice.... *Dr. Tony Martin speaking on the Atlantic Slave Trade* Or, this

[image: Ronald and Nancy Reagan - 90000] LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Nancy Reagan, the helpmate, backstage adviser and fierce protector of Ronald Reagan in his journey from actor to president -- and finally during his 10-year battle with Alzheimer’s disease -- has died. She was 94. The...more »

I read a comment on the jonova site that referred to "the gravitational warming theory". My response: *There is no "gravitational warming", per se. There is instead gravitational distribution of atmospheric pressure (the pressure at any level is just the weight of the atmosphere above that level), which imposes a vertical temperature distribution (the "lapse rate" structure). Whatever energy is contained in the atmosphere, it has to be vertically distributed according to that elementary physics. This is entirely independent of HOW the atmosphere is warmed. In particular it is indepe...more »

I've been watching the heightened emissions at Fukushima Daiichi for the last week trying to figure out what is going on. It looks to me as if one major source of the heightened emissions is unit 1, particularly from the corner that is closest to unit 2 in the screenshot below (above the circle of light on unit 1's wall): Today the TBS cam was up and running. It seems as if one can see reddish emissions emanating from the same corner of unit 1 (behind unit 2) on this cam as well, as illustrated by these cropped shots taken a few minutes before the screenshot above (at 1:14 and 1:2...more »

This is really a continuation of the 6AM post on the easily verifiable catastrophe of Republican Party governance. Even the over-hyped Texas economy-- all statewide officers are Republicans and the Texas state Senate has 20 Republicans and 11 Democrats and the state House has 98 Republicans and 52 Democrats-- has started crumbling, the victims of GOP ideological nonsense in action. As the price of oil tanked, Texas' hollowed out economy started collapsing as though the state was a whiter version of Nigeria and run by the same kind of crackpots. In his *NY Times* column Friday, ...more »

*NBC:* *Former First Lady Nancy Reagan Dead at 94* Nancy Reagan, one of the most high-profile and influential first ladies of the 20th century, has died, according to a spokeswoman with the Reagan Library. She was 94. The cause of death was congestive heart failure, according to her rep Joanne Drake. "Mrs. Reagan will be buried at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, next to her husband, Ronald Wilson Reagan, who died on June 5, 2004," Drake wrote in a statement. *Read more* .... *WNU Editor:* Our thoughts and prayers are with the family.

Red Square *Leonid Bershidsky, Bloomberg*:* Russia Missed Its Chance to Be Like America* Many Russians feel the U.S. and their country are much alike. Both are vast, they share a sense of adventure, along with underlying lawlessness and violence, and in both, the infrastructure often is an afterthought. So what is keeping Russia from turning into another America -- a democratic nation and an economic powerhouse? Russia got its chance in the early 1990s, but it was largely wasted. The first post-Soviet decade brought almost unlimited liberties, but also rampant corruption and econo...more »

85 percent of Russians said they still support President Vladimir Putin's actions at the helm of Russia, the Levada Center independent pollster revealed Wednesday. Mikhail Klimentyev/RIA Novosti/Kremlin/Reuters *Washington Post*: *Just because Russians like Putin doesn’t mean they’re happy about the economy* MOSCOW – Backers of Russian President Vladimir Putin like to brag that he has a sky-high approval rating. But what does that look like in real life? That’s what I wanted to find out when I spent a recent weekend afternoon shadowing a Russian opinion pollster. Polls show that R...more »

Mar 1 Pres Bush said Iraqi people should overthrow Saddam - Iraqi army units and civilians in Basra and Suq al-Shuykh begin revolt against govt Mar 2 Nasiriya joins revolt - Rebels attack military intelligence headquarters in Basra Mar 3 Demonstrations against Saddam start in Najaf Mar 4 Fighting breaks out against govt in Najaf Mar 5 Kurdish revolt starts in Rania - Karbala joins Shiite revolt - Sec of Def Cheney said US would not be able to hold coalition together if it moved on Saddam - US Gen Brandtner said US would not let weapons go to Shiite rebels in southern Iraq - Ayatoll...more »

Amid growing tensions in the Korean peninsula, over 2,000 US troops have arrived in South Korea to take part in a joint military exercise. The joint US-South Korean exercises will be largest military drills to be staged on the Korean Peninsula and are both a warning to Pyongyang as well as an effort to reassure the ‘jittery public‘ in the South. Following recent UN sanctions and citing growing enemy threats, the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ordered his military forces to prepare for using nuclear weapons. Press TV reports: According to US Marine officials, accompanying the troops ...more »

U.S. President Barack Obama extends his hand to Cuban President Raul Castro at the start of their meeting at the United Nations General Assembly in New York September 29, 2015. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque *Alfonso Chardy, Miami Herald*: *Will spy wars between Cuba and the U.S. end with restored relations?* * Since Fidel Castro seized power in January 1959, and over the next five decades, Havana built one of the world’s most active intelligence services * Some of the biggest crises in U.S.-Cuba relations can be traced to the involvement of Cuban spies and agents * Cuban espionage against ...more »

The European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker has warned that Britain could spark World War Three if it votes to leave the European Union. In an astonishing outburst the leader even warned voters not to repeat the “enormous stupidity” of two world wars. He accused Brexit voters of forgetting the role that the EU had played in the years since the Second World War and even suggested that eurosceptics visit war graves to try and avoid a breakdown in peace between nations. The Express reports: The former prime minister of Luxembourg said: “Whoever does not believe in Europe, who...more »

*Observation:* Couldn’t help but notice some of the AP reports had dropped the territorial integrity aspect entirely- Can’t imagine why (facetious) I'm going to start out by reminding my readers that Turkey and Iran have for the most part had very good relations. If you read the National Interest article regarding Putin and his godfather of Kurdistan status- that point was clearly stated.* "**prior to the outbreak of the Syrian civil war Turkish-Iranian relations were amicable" *I'll also remind readers that Turkey did not fully comply with the US sanctions against Iran. Indicatin...more »

*(Click on Image to Enlarge)* *Trib Live:* *Next-generation weapons poised to transform how U.S. fights wars* If the military must fight another war, the enemy might confront laser-firing jets, wheeled robots shooting tank-melting warheads and soldiers armed with rifles that make each of them a sniper. Those are just some of the high-tech weapons being designed for the military. If they pan out, they could revolutionize the way the Pentagon wages war — more networked than ever, with bullets that provide the ability to detect and destroy foes with ruthless precision, limiting Ameri...more »

Image: Wikimedia Commons/U.S. Navy. *Michael Peck, National Interest:* *Have Lethal Swarming Drones Made Submarines Obsolete?* *It just became a lot more dangerous under the sea.* Submarines can run—but they can't hide—from drones. That's the contention of a new report by a British think tank, which argues that the growing numbers and sophistication of drones are depriving submarines of their stealthiness. The report, authored by science journalist David Hambling for the British American Security Information Council, was written as a briefing paper for Britain's Parliament, which...more »

Turkey..... *NRT English* ‏@NRT_English 2m 2 minutes ago Demonstration breaks out in #London against #Turkish operations in southeast of #*Turkey* #NRTnews *New Eastern Outlook* ‏@JournalNEO 3m 3 minutes ago How Much Money Will Erdogan Make from the #EU Migration Crisis? http:// journal-neo.org/2016/03/04/how -much-money-will-erdogan-make-from-the-eu-migration-crisis/ … #*Turkey* **** Turkey’s President at a meeting in Antalya back in November 14, 2015 demanded the EU to provide him with 30 billion euros instead of 3 for him to allegedly address the refug...more »

*IBTimes:* *Meet The X-Plane: The Military's Planned Helicopter-Plane Hybrid That Is Operated Remotely [VIDEO]* The Pentagon announced it awarded a contract for more than $89 million this week to Aurora Flight Sciences to work toward an X-plane — essentially a plane-helicopter hybrid — that would feature vertical takeoff and landing. Aurora landed the contract for a second and third phase of research on the X-plane, beating out competitor Sikorsky. Tech Insider pointed out that the VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) X-plane would share DNA with the military's V-22 Osprey, which c...more »

*Wall Street Journal:* *Afghan, Taliban Officials Recently Met to Discuss Efforts to End War* *Militant group says it hasn’t agreed to enter into official peace process.* KABUL—An Afghan government delegation recently met with Taliban members in Qatar to discuss efforts to end the country’s long-running war, officials said, after peace talks collapsed last year. The high-level meeting at the end of February was held discreetly in the capital Doha to discuss a possible announcement about restarting official peace talks, one of the officials briefed on the meeting told The Wall Str...more »

[image: rant-jpeg-b] It is Sunday, and again time for my weekly rant.... I may be taking some time off very shortly for a well needed vacation...I have been very stressed out this last while with all the latest happenings with my job and with so much on my plate in my personal life, that a break from everything is so much needed.......If I do, I will alert everyone here as to when and when I will return... I will do my utmost during my time off to still write my weekly rants of course..... The temperatures here in central Canada are finally beginning to moderate towards normal... ...more »

South Korean army's K-2 tanks take part in a live-firing drill at a fire training field in Yangpyeong, South Korea. Reuters *BBC:* *South Korea and US set for 'largest ever' war games* The US and South Korea are set to begin their largest ever joint military exercises amid high tensions on the Korean peninsula. More than 300,000 South Korean and 15,000 US troops will take part in the drills, Yonhap news agency reported, citing a military official. South Korean defence minister Han Min-koo has said the exercises will be twice the size of last year. The drills start days after the U...more »

Russia's President Vladimir Putin (C) attends a conference at the main operation centre of the Russian armed forces, with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu (L) and armed forces Chief-of-Staff Valery Gerasimov (R) in Moscow, June 6, 2013. Credit: Reuters/Michael Klimentyev/RIA Novosti/Kremlin *Michael Kofman, National Interest*: *How to Lose a Proxy War with Russia* *The only winning move is not to play* The tenuous cease-fire deal in Syria offers an opportunity for reflection on not just the Syrian war, but also the conflict in Ukraine, where the war burned bright this time last year ...more »

Under connection my brain cant hear the words collected by my reality ears My optic nerves are useless because on the central cortex only the light of beauty can fell Every word she speaks is Shakespeare and its delivered by Joan of Arc and I am eaten by a great white gorgeous shark man killer

We spent our last day in Oregon poking around downtown Ashland, looking at scarves and jewelry and used books. We don't shop much when we travel, but there were a few things I was looking for on this trip, and I found them all. We also picked up this very amusing guide to New York City etiquette, and had a second great lunch at Brothers'. If you're ever in Ashland, go. We also walked around a beautiful neighbourhood with the lovely Sophia in the stroller and her mom happy to be out of the house on a gorgeous spring-like day. The trees are in full blossom and daffodils are out. In ea...more »

[image: Hands by God's Design - 900] Who are the most dogmatic, inflexible, reactionary, unforgiving, monomaniacal set of people these days? Folks apt to go off half-cocked, act intemperately, respond to criticism with unthinking ignorant fury, people who call for their enemies to be purged, ostracized, punished?...more »

[image: maxresdefault] Proposed reforms to the criminal justice system at the state and federal levels won't do what advocates say it will, an outspoken county sheriff says, citing "the three big lies" of some proponents who want to reduce prison sentences. "I can't figure out...more »

[image: Ronald Reagan - 900] If there’s anything we thought we knew about the GOP, it is that it is the party of Reagan. Paying obeisance to Ronald Reagan -- his memory, his accomplishments, his policies -- has long been the price of entry to Republican presidential...more »

[image: Zuhdi Jasser speaking at the 2015 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland.] Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, an Arizona physician and prominent voice for Muslims who reject terrorism in the name of Islam, says he is hopeful because Americans are becoming knowledgeable about the radical Islamists who pose the true threat around the world. Jasser,...more »

[image: Ayaan Hirsi Ali-900] U.S. leaders should learn the history and motivations behind Islam in order to defeat radicalized terrorists, human rights activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali told an audience of conservative activists. "To discuss Islam as a set of ideas does not make you...more »

[image: 1silprayer] TRANSCRIPT: James Robison Speaking With Dr. Michael Brown MICHAEL BROWN: Last question: I posted a minute or two ago, America exists as a nation today only by the extreme mercy of God, and I don't think anybody has disagreed...more »

*A late night thought* I am close to ROFL (Rolling on the floor laughing) about the revision of his RSS satellite temperature record by Carl Mears. His revised figures show a temperature rise of one hundredths of one degree Celsius per annum. A straight-line projection of that (Warmists are big on straight-line projections) produces a 2115 temperature rise of only one degree Celsius. Until the Greenies started shrieking, nobody noticed the nearly one degree rise between the late 19th century and the late 20C so why should we expect our great-grandchildren to be bothered by a sim...more »

In Kansas tonight Little Marco came in a distant third (16.7%) behind Cruz (48.2%) and Herr Trumpf (23.3%). He won 6 delegates to Cruz's 24 and Herr Trumpf's 9. Trumpf called on him to drop out of the race. Early in the day, Rubio was in Overland, Kansas with spectacularly failed Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback Friday, campaigning against Herr. Watch the video above and listen to him explain how, exactly, Republican governance works. But people in Kansas-- just like people in Louisiana and Michigan-- know first hand how Republican governance works. The kind of Republican Party economic ...more »

Escorted out to sea by the Alpha Marine Services built C-Tractor 3 tug, the Seawolf-class nuclear-powered attack submarine USS Jimmy Carter (SSN-23), departs Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay for a one-night underway that included an embark by former President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn. 11 Aug. 2005. Wikipedia *Joseph Trevithick, War Is Boring*: *This secretive U.S. Navy submarine went on a dangerous mission* On Jan. 20, 2013, the Seawolf-class attack submarine USS Jimmy Carter left her home port in Bangor, Washington. Less than two months later, the submarine appeared at Pe...more »

* This is my article in BusinessWorld last March 03, 2016. When government intervenes in the pricing of a particular product or service supposedly to protect the consumers from “unwarranted” price hikes, or to pursue some social or environmental goals, the action tends to create more problems than what it intends to solve. Take the case of government price control of electricity via (a) fixed and guaranteed pricing through feed in tariff (FIT) for solar, wind, biomass, and run of river (ROR) hydro for 20 years, (b) priority or mandatory dispatch of renewables even if cheaper energy...more »

[image: Donald Trump] During his many, well-publicized appearances on the campaign trail, Donald Trump has repeatedly declared Common Core to be a "disaster" that will be repealed as soon as he is elected. There's just one problem: Feds can't "repeal" Common Core. "Common...more »

*IBTimes*: *Japan To Halt US Okinawa Base Relocation Work But Government Says Plan Intact* Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed Friday to temporarily suspend work on the relocation of a U.S. Marine Corps base on Japan’s southern Okinawa island, reportedly saying he wants to end the dispute with the island’s government and residents, who want the base moved off the island. The government in Tokyo wants to move the airbase to another, less populated location on the island. The base is currently at Futenma, a densely populated urban area, and Tokyo was working on reclaiming land...more »

Daily Mail *Business Insider*:* 'It's unprecedented, we have never seen this before': How ISIS makes and supplies deadly IEDs* ISIS has taken the use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to a nearly industrial level as the terror group continues to hold onto territory in Iraq and Syria, Foreign Affairs reports. The terror group, which holds large swathes of territory in both Iraq and Syria despite being pressured from nearly all sides, has turned to the use of IEDs as a major force multiplier. An investigator for Conflict Armament Research (CAR) told Foreign Affairs that ISIS’s...more »

Defense Secretary Ash Carter speaks with troops assigned to the 62nd Airlift Wing on Joint base Lewis-McChord, Wash., March 4, 2016. Carter said their posture and power projection capabilities play a pivotal role in DoD's rebalance to the Asia-Pacific. DoD photo by Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Tim D. Godbee

[image: Ted Cruz smiles while speaking at the 2013 Values Voter Summit.] Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas won the Conservative Political Action Conference's straw poll Saturday with 40 percent of the vote, winning one over on front runner Donald Trump, who still leads in most polls. Followed by Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida with...more »

[image: ISIS Takes It To The Taliban In Afghanistan] BAGHDAD (AP) -- A suicide bomber on Sunday rammed his explosives-laden fuel truck into a security checkpoint south of Baghdad, killing at least 31 people and wounding dozens, officials said, the latest episode in an uptick in violence in the...more »

Time to move away from yesterday and onto today as *The Spectator *says that Andrew Marr has provoked a big 'BBC bias' stooshie over his interview with Boris on this morning's *Marr Show. * According to Mr Steerpike, various "Leave activists" (on Twitter) have accused the BBC presenter of being biased against Brexit because of the high number of interruptions during his interview with the London mayor. Andrew Marr has responded (on Twitter) saying: To those saying I interrupted BJ too much... It felt like being a fly heckling a steamroller, or twig trying to intervene with a water...more »

*US to investigate racial allegations at "Boston Latin" High School* *Boston Latin School is an academically selective school so there are few blacks there and they no doubt feel out of place there. So a few of them are squalling about "racism", generally on very slim grounds. An extensive enquiry failed to find anything much to the accusations but that was the "wrong" finding. Work must go on until the allegations are upheld* US Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz said Wednesday that she has agreed to investigate allegations of racism at Boston Latin School at the request of several communi...more »

[image: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry listens as Afghan presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani addresses reporters at the United Nations Mission Headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan on July 12, 2014, about the details of an agreement on a technical and political plan the Secretary helped broker to resolve the disputed outcome of the election between Ghani and rival candidate Abdullah Abdullah.] KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani said on Sunday that the Islamic State group has been defeated in the eastern parts of the country, where it had taken over some ...more »

Another reliable source of BBC bias is Anita Anand on *Any Answers*. Here's how she began this week's edition: So tell me, just between friends: Are you finding the EU referendum debate a bit...well...boring? If you are, what can the politicians do to engage you? What will Brexit do to the UK's skills base? Is it going to weaken it? Is it going to strengthen it? Particularly keen to hear from you if you're running a business which maybe employs a significant proportion of EU workers. What happens the day *after *if we leave? Some leading questions *and* a specific invitation to ...more »

Continuing with the catch-up posts from yesterday.... Sue has already praised Shaimaa Khalil's piece about the Pakistani assassin and his large number of murderous supporters in yesterday's *From Our Own Correspondent. *What else was there on this weekend's edition? Well, the lead item was about....drum roll, followed by surprised expressions all round....Donald 'The Donald' Trump. (Bet you didn't see that coming!) It came from the BBC's North America editor Jon Sopel and didn't seem particularly biased to me. It *did *seem very stylish and enjoyable though. I find him a much mor...more »

What follows are a few catch-up posts concerning things broadcast yesterday on BBC Radio 4... Last night's *PM* began with the migrant crisis. After a short clip from an interview with "15 year-old Angie from Aleppo in Syria", hoping to go to go to join her father in Stuttgart, came a full-length interview with Franck Düvell, "an associate professor at the Centre of Migration Policy and Society at Oxford University" - as Shaun Ley introduced him. Shaun asked him if "Angie's example" was typical, and Professor Düvell said it was and kept saying that the women and children on the ...more »

NATO member Turkey is using the opportunity of the conflict in Syria to finish off the genocide of all ethnic minorities in the country which they started with the Greeks and Armenians in the 20th century. Now Turkey seems set to do the same against the Kurdish population in its Southeast, and the silence from Europe is deafening. Russia Insider reports: It appears the EU and Turkey have reached a blood bargain – if the Euros look the other way on the Kurdish “problem,” Erdogan will cut refugee flows into Europe. Below is a report from Russian TV about the “anti-terror” operation go...more »

*The third attempt to erase the global warming "hiatus"* *The fact that the global temperature record was showing a "hiatus" (was not showing any rise) was first pointed out some years ago by the late Bob Carter. Scorn and contempt was heaped on him for his pains. Warmists said it was just a "blip". Not unreasonably, they pointed to previous hiatuses -- such as the long hiatus of 1945 to 1975 (30 years!) -- and noted that temperature rises re-started after that.A 30 year temperature hiatus while CO2 levels were rising strongly did not seem to embarrass th...more »

With the Harper regime having been turfed from power at least in part for their blatant misuse of public advertising dollars for partisan purposes and for their secrecy and failure to disclose anything that could be considered negative towards their rule, and with the senate expense scandal still ongoing, I wonder if ANY of our politicians have learned anything. We have the Ontario Liberals filling the airways with advertising promoting their Ontario Registered Pension Plan which *will not be implemented until 2017* and will not pay out to anyone until 2020. *The ORPP will be intr...more »

http://www.eoearth.org/ The Ontario government recently announced its cap and trade system. The system will add a little more than four cents to each litre of gasoline. Former Toronto Mayor David Miller -- now president of the World Wildlife Fund -- writes that some of that money should be used to protect Ontario's forests and wetlands: The government can make significant advances in the fight against climate change if some of the billions in expected cap and trade revenue is also spent to support healthy forests, complex wetlands,...more »

Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz sent a distressing email to his doctor before he crashed the A320 jet into the French Alps last year killing 150 people. The paranoid suicide pilot was suffering depression and sent an email to his doctor just weeks before the atrocity revealing his fear of going blind. “I am afraid to go blind… I can’t get this possibility out of my head,” Lubitz wrote. Mail Online reports: Lubitz, then 27, slammed the A320 jet into the French Alps on March 24, killing all 149 passengers and crew on board. The contents of the email he sent to his doctor two weeks ...more »

Belarusian artist Владимир Петрань makes art that looks like it has a sculpted or embossed surface and I love it, especially this first Lepidopterist image. According to the artist who's just explained his 'process', there's nothing sculptural or embosssed about the art they're just OIL PAINTINGS. Simply superb.

*BBC Breakfast*'s favourite imam, Ibrahim Mogra (Assistant Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain), was doing the paper review again this morning. His first choice of story probably won't surprise you...(it certainly didn't surprise me. He always seems to begin with a 'Muslim story')....yes, he went straight for the "extremely worrying" *Independent on Sunday* story about alleged British government collusion in rendition and torture at "notorious" Guantanamo Bay. The PM needs to respond seriously to the charges, he said, "because this is just one other bit of ammuniti...more »

Following on from Sue's post (and from two previous posts about the BBC's Innes Bowen)... This morning's *Sunday *led with the news about Mumtaz Qadri's funeral, with Edward Stourton expressing his (understandable) astonishment that tens of thousands of people had come out to demonstrate in favour of an assassin and BBC correspondent Shaimaa Khalil echoing that, saying that if you'd have landed in Pakistan and seen the crowds you might have assumed Qadri was a national hero rather than a killer. Ed then talked to Innes Bowen, BBC editor and author of *Medina in Birmingham, Najaf ...more »

The ugly story about how General Motors Corporation (GMC) bought up and shut down the trolley systems across the country in order to force the public to have to purchase their cars. Not only did our cities become a polluted traffic mess but the nation became addicted to fossil fuels which created a foreign policy of endless war for oil. Due to the massive scale of automobile emissions worldwide we now face the tragic future of climate change. Isn't it time to rethink the entire global transit system? Isn't it time that we converted the war production machine to help us dump the...more »

[image: Mine explosion Operation End Sweep - 900] An American naval mine explodes in North Vietnams Haiphong Harbor during Operation End Sweep, photographed by the automatic mine locator camera aboard an American CH-53A Sea Stallion helicopter. It is believed to be the only explosion of a mine during...more »

Slovaks are very similar to Czechs and we have lived in the same country for quite some time. But the differences in the political attitudes and fashions are significant. Slovakia voted for its new Parliament and the results are interesting. The turnout was 60%. Prime minister Robert Fico's Smer (Direction), the moderate social democratic party, won with 28.3% of the votes. That's a clear victory in comparison with the other parties – the second one had 12.1% – but a significant decrease from the last elections. Eight or nine parties have made it above the 5% threshold needed to sit...more »

It’s essential to understand: the purpose of the scorched-earth campaign waged against Sanders and his supporters by the Democratic establishment and its mouthpieces at "Vox," the "Daily Beast," the "Washington Post," etc., is not merely to prevent a Sanders nomination. The point is to so tar Sanders supporters with slurs and empty accusations of bigotry as to ensure that they gain no

*From* *Jenna Orkin* Iraq: Mosul Dam Engineers Warn It Could Fail at Any Time, Killing 1 Million People Turkish authorities just seized control of the country's largest newspaper Fukushima Disaster Nearly Destroyed Japan, Government Nuclear Safety Adviser Majored in Economics A US government agency claims it's achieved the 'holy grail' of energy — next-generation battery storage Scientists may have found a new bug capable of transmitting Zika — and it could be bad news for how far the virus can spread The world's highest court will hear a case from a tiny island country in the Pa...more »

Tonight Bernie won all 4 congressional districts in the Kansas caucuses. Statewide, the vote was 67.7% to 32.3% and he won 23 delegates to the conservative establishment candidate's 10. In Nebraska, Bernie took 55.1% to Clinton's 44.9%, 14 delegates for him and 10 for her. In Louisiana, Hilary won a name recognition primary in one of the most poorly educated states in the country and took 35 deluges to Bernie's 10. Down in South Florida, as far as I can tell, there were two things that inspired Tim Canova to run for the congressional seat that's been long held by entrenched corru...more »

British journalists, presumably Jeremy Corbyn enthusiasts, seem a hell of a lot more excited about Bernie's political revolution that the corporate political journalists based in this country. But before we get into the work of a British journalist who's following Bernie around the country and reporting on his campaign for U.K. readers, one quick look at a decidedly *un*-corporate American perspective, from our old pal, Russ Baker from Who.What.Why. This week he reported on the role of the Clinton Machine and it's media allies in keeping the African American vote in a pre-ordained ...more »

ISIL loyalists at the training at a camp in Libya which was struck by the Americans in February 2016 Photo: SITE *The Telegraph*: *US planning to strike Isil in Libya based on 'faulty intelligence'* Experts and officials believe that America's assessment of Isil's strength in Libya is overblown. The United States is basing plans for military intervention in Libya on faulty intelligence, Western officials and country experts have told the Sunday Telegraph. American intelligence agencies assess that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) has doubled in size in Libya, with ...more »

*Reuters*:* U.N. Security Council pushes peace deal implementation in Mali* The United Nations Security Council traveled to northern Mali on Saturday to push for implementation of a fragile peace deal aimed at ending a cycle of internal uprisings and allowing the government to combat the growing threat of Islamist militants. Tuareg rebels demanding autonomy for their northern homeland, the government and pro-Bamako militias signed the U.N.-backed accord last year, pledging to end decades of hostilities. Political analysts, however, say confidence has steadily eroded, slowing peace...more »

Stephen Grant, W5 Published Friday, March 4, 2016 4:00PM EST Trouble in paradise.. http://www.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=822345 http://www.ctvnews.ca/w5/b-c-residents-claim-water-at-risk-from-government-approved-landfill-site-1.2803970 *Shawnigan Lake on Vancouver Island is a pristine body of water that provides recreation, awesome views and clean drinking water to 12,000 people. But just up the hill from this slice of paradise is a contaminated landfill site that’s threatening the community’s way of life.* * In August of 2013 the B.C. government granted South Island Aggreg...more »

Gotham City. Metropolis. Central City. Star City. Coast City. Opal City. DC Comics has a number of fictional cities in the United States. As a counterpoint, Marvel Comics tends to use real cities, though it does have its share of fictional nations such as Latveria and Wakanda. As I work out a superhero setting I have to confess to preferring the DC Comics method. I'm the type of person who likes "getting things right" and setting a game in a city can put me into a research loop. To be sure, it's a mental block on my part. It's one of the things I like about setting Call of Cthulh...more »

(L-R, front) U.S. President Barack Obama, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping. (Reuters / Alexei Druzhinin) / Reuters *Michael T. Klare, The Nation:* *Are the Major World Powers Blundering Toward War?* The US, Russia, China, and others are playing a dangerous game of military provocation. That’s exactly how World War I started a century ago. Whether or not we have slid into a “new Cold War,” as claimed by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev at the Munich Security Conference on February 13, we certainly have entered a period of escalating provocation...more »

AFP Photo / US Air Force / AFP *CNN:* *Obama administration to release drone program 'playbook'* (CNN)The Obama administration told a federal judge on Friday it is ready to make public a so-called playbook for the U.S. drone program. The letter filed in court in New York comes following an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit. The letter says the the government would make redactions to protect the identities of government officials who make decisions on whether to capture a suspect terrorist or to add them to a list to be targeted for killing. The release of the Presidential Pol...more »

*Reuters:* *Philippines seizes North Korean cargo ship to enforce U.N. sanctions* The Philippines said on Saturday it had seized a North Korean freighter that was covered by harsher United Nations' sanctions against Pyongyang over its nuclear program. Manila will also deport the vessel's 21 North Korean crew and will await a U.N. inspection team from the United Nations, foreign ministry spokesman Charles Jose said in a text message. "In compliance with the United Nations resolution, the North Korean ship in Subic will be impounded and not allowed to leave port," he said. The 6,8...more »

*Reuters*: *Taliban says rejects 'futile' Afghanistan peace talks* The Taliban said on Saturday it would not take part in peace talks brokered by representatives of Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the United States, casting doubt on efforts to revive negotiations. The Taliban, ousted from power in a U.S.-led military intervention in 2001, has been waging a violent insurgency to try to topple Afghanistan's Western-backed government and re-establish a fundamentalist Islamic regime. Following a meeting of the so-called Quadrilateral Coordination Group made up of representatives of t...more »

*VOX:* *The Latest Threat To Freedom In Turkey* *The government of Turkey has taken over a popular newspaper, raising fears of more crackdowns on dissent* An Istanbul court ordered the government takeover of Turkey’s top-selling newspaper Friday, triggering concerns from human rights groups and opposition leaders that freedom of press in the country has all but disappeared. The newspaper Zaman, and its English-language sister paper Today’s Zaman, were taken over by court administrators, confirmed Managing Editor Celil Sagir. Rumors had circulated in pro-government media for days ...more »

A worker adjusts the valve of an oil pipe at West Qurna oilfield in Iraq's southern province of Basra in this November 28, 2010 file photo.REUTERS/Atef Hassan/Files *The Independent: **Is it Isis or the economy that will ruin Iraq?* Jihad is still a threat to the people of Baghdad, but lack of oil revenue is inducing near-panic Islamic State prepares its murderous bombings with chilling care and attention to detail. Several months ago, the Iraqi security forces discovered a plan to bomb al-Khadamiya, an ancient quarter of Baghdad at the centre of which is one of the holiest Shia s...more »

Smoke rises over Kobani after an airstrike, as seen from the Mursitpinar border crossing on the Turkish-Syrian border in the southeastern town of Suruc in Sanliurfa province, October 18, 2014 (Reuters) *The Independent:* *Isis air strikes: Civilian death toll from western bombing 'set to reach 1,000 within days'* Cameron under pressure to update MPs on impact of RAF campaign in Syria and Iraq The civilian death toll from Western air strikes against Islamic State fighters is set to pass the 1,000 mark “within days”, independent monitors told The Independent on Sunday. The revelati...more »

An Isis video apparently depicting children in a training camp in 2015. Photograph: Isis *The Guardian*: *How Islamic State is training child killers in doctrine of hate* *At least 50 UK youngsters are growing up in the Isis ‘caliphate’, where education means watching videos of murders.* A new generation of Isis recruits is being developed in the Islamic State’s “caliphate”, indoctrinated with religious concepts from birth, and viewed by its fighters as better and purer than themselves, according to the first study of the exploitation and abuse of children as a means of securing t...more »

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin *The Guardian:* *Russia ‘stoking refugee unrest in Germany to topple Angela Merkel’* *Analysts at Nato centre claim to have found evidence of ‘information war’ over migration crisis with links to Vladimir Putin.* Russia is trying to topple Angela Merkel by waging an information war designed to stir up anger in Germany over refugees, Nato’s most senior expert on strategic communications has claimed. The attempt to provoke the removal of the German leader, who has been a strong supporter of sanctions against Vladim...more »

*over three thousand people with only a one day notice of event. * Fifteen hundred of us lucky ticket holders were inside, while sixteen hundred bravely stood outside. At least the rain had eased off. I arrived at the North Idaho Fairgrounds in Coeur d'Alene at noon and lined up in the rain. Thank goodness I own a bunch of umbrellas. The doors were to open at 1:00 pm and the event was to start at 2:00 pm, but Cruz landed at our airport about 2:15. It's a short trip to the fairgrounds, so Cruz was on stage by 2:30. *Bravely standing in the rain waiting for the doors to open at 1...more »

[image: FILE - In this Jan. 8, 2016, file photo, Gov. Paul LePage speaks at a news conference at the State House in Augusta, Maine. Before there was Donald Trump, there was LePage, a brash businessman with a blunt style who bonded with blue-collar workers in an economically lagging state that had been a reliable bastion of Democrats and moderate Republicans.(AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)] PORTLAND, Maine (AP) -- Before there was Donald Trump, there was Paul LePage, a brash businessman with a blunt style who bonded with blue-collar workers in an economically lagging state that prev...more »

“Looking toward the south from an altitude of 400 kilometers, this stunning snapshot from orbit finds bright lights of Tokyo and cities across central and southern Japan, planet Earth shining upward through broken clouds. The spacefaring perspective was captured last July by astronaut Scott Kelly during his stay on board the International Space Station. *Click image for larger size.* Thin stripes of airglow follow the curve of the planet's dark limb, while beyond lie stars of the constellation Centaurus and the southern sky. Their solar panels extended, a docked Soyuz (bottom) and Pr...more »

*“10 Myths About Your Purpose In Life”* by Elyse Santilli *"1. There is one definition of success. *And it involves an established career, large house, acceptable body shape, marriage and annual holidays. The truth is we all have our own unique path to walk in this life because what brings true meaning and satisfaction differs for all of us. Let go of the idea that there is a right way to live. Instead, commit to living, working, playing, creating, traveling, eating, loving and laughing in ways that feel right to you. *2. You should compare yourself to other people. *There is a say...more »

Section C Faith Page has a sermonette that IS a sermonette. It takes religion out of the churches and into the the streets of real life. That, I think, is what all of the world's great religious thinkers did. And it's what most churches don't do. I don't know who David Morehouse is. I have no idea what his Journey Church is (and I suspect I would not be interested in it.) But this is about the real world. And the real world and values in the real world are what a Faith Page sermonette should be about. This one goes right into the action with Donald Trump who has massive support fr...more »

*"Breaking! North Korea Calling-Up Army Reserves-* * Official Mobilization!"* Developing very fast; check back for continuous updates. 2:13 PM eastern US time 5 March 2016 by Newsroom "With new United Nations Sanctions already hitting hard, North Korea is now officially Mobilizing Army Reserves for battle. Door-to-Door notification: "report for duty." "North Korea Re-Issues Warning: Will Take Pysical Actions In Response To Sanctions." "We will mobilize various means and ways to take strong and merciless actions, including physical means," - North Korean Government statement. North ...more »

*Really?* • "Hillary Email Indictment Watch: State Department Staffer Given Immunity" • "Hillary’s National Security Crime Needs a Special Prosecutor" • "Rudy Giuliani: Hillary Can't Avoid Indictment in Email Scandal" *Time will tell how it really is...* *"Equal justice under the Law?"* *You or I, for these offenses, would be locked away for 10,000 years...* *More likely, as Richard Pryor said, * *"When you go down to the Justice Center that's just what you see. Just us."*

It has been amazing how the Jew spew media in America has been able to fill the average American mind with so much fluff and bullshit these days, especially in regards to the American political circus, and I look at it as being done on purpose...These criminals in the media and their Jewish paymasters know full well that the days of American as a great power are now numbered due to the impending economic collapse, and they are trying their utmost to keep the American people in the dark about how bad their economic situation truly is... The American people will only find out once the...more »

Turkish President’s son Bilal Erdogan is reportedly ‘on the run’ in Europe after Russia issued a “kill order” against him following revelations that Bilal actively supports ISIS. Bilal has returned home to Turkey after texting his father Recep Tayyip Erdogan “Our security in Bologna has become a very sensitive issue both for the Italian and the Turkish government,” the Security Council report. Whatdoesitmean.com reports: According to this report, upon the SC issuing this “kill order” against Bilal Erdoğan earlier today, the GRU notified their counterparts in Italy’s Agenzia Informaz...more »

The FBI have launched a new program forcing high schools across America to report students that display “anti-government” or rebellious behavior to authorities. The program is an attempt to prevent future terrorists from manifesting, in the governments ongoing “war on terror”. The FBI are urging school teachers to report any “suspicious behavior” to authorities in their new guidelines entitled “Preventing Violent Extremism in Schools“. Sputniknews.com reports: “High school students are ideal targets for recruitment by violent extremists seeking support for their radical ideologies,...more »

Baron David de Rothschild was indicted by French authorities last year after being caught embezzling huge sums of money from British pensioners. Now French authorities have announced plans to step up their case against him by closing down and investigating the entire Swiss branch of the Rothschild’s banking empire. Thefreethoughtproject.com reports: According to Bloomberg, The Swiss unit of Edmond de Rothschild said it’s the subject of a French probe regarding a former business relationship managed by a former employee. “Edmond de Rothschild (Suisse) SA is actively participating in...more »

The Syrian army have seized two trucks loaded with US and Israel-made weapons destined for ISIS militants in Sweida, Syria. The troops say the weapons include 20 RPG shells, landmines, 90 anti-tanks, BKS machinegun boxes, and various types of ammunition. Sott.net reports: The cargos of militants’ weapons and ammunition, including RPG, landmines and various types of ammunition, were seized by the Syrian army in two separate operation in the Eastern and Northeastern deserts of Sweida province. The Southern province of Sweida, bordering Jordan, has since 2011 been one of the main spo...more »

Russia have announced plans to launch a series of nuclear missile tests from their nuclear-powered submarines – in an effort to ready their military in case of a nuclear war. The missiles will include the Bulava submarine-launched ballistic missile, one of the worlds most advanced and expensive weapons. Haaretz.com reports: The missiles will be fired by two Borei-class nuclear-powered submarines, the Yuri Dolgoruky and the Vladimir Monomakh, Izvestiya reported, quoting a source at the Northern Fleet’s headquarters. The Bulava entered service with the Yuri Dolgoruky in January 2013....more »

President Vladimir Putin is on a mission to expand Russian ideology and is employing social media trolls to effect political change. The director of NATO’s strategic communications command in Riga, Latvia, says that the Russians are using modern propaganda methods to effect change in their favor and that Britain is not immune from the results. Jānis Sārts says that the Russians are in a digital information offensive against non-Russians. The Independent reports: Sitting at a long table in a conference room at the whitewashed Nato headquarters, Sārts cannot see the logic of Russia in...more »

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is taking over independent media outlets in Turkey, in an effort to suppress growing dissent in Turkey among journalists who are attempting to report on Turkey’s support of ISIS. On Friday this week, the leading opposition newspaper Zaman was hijacked by Turkish authorities, followed by the disabling of another newspaper, Cihan News Agency, the very next day. Erdogan is desperate to hide the fact that the Turkish government have allowed a transit route for the U.S. to supply weapons to ISIS in order to oust Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. Rin...more »

It was Hillary Clinton, not Bill, Janet Reno, Webb Hubbell, or Vince Foster – who ordered the Waco massacre in 1993 that led to the death of 76 Americans, including 21 children and two pregnant women. The Waco attack motivated Timothy McVeigh to launch the Oklahoma City bombings two years later on April 19, 1995. First Lady Hillary Clinton pressured Deputy White House Counsel Vince Foster and Webb Hubbell to use military force in resolving the Waco standoff due to the saturated media coverage the standoff was receiving, distracting from her new health care reform (Hillarycare). Pol...more »

Turkey and Israel are holding diplomatic talks in an effort to ‘normalise’ the relationship between the two countries, after relations deteriorated six years ago following the murder of 10 Turkish pro-Palestinian activists near the Gaza strip in 2010. Turkish newspaper Hürriyet says that Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has confirmed that “Israel and Turkey will publish a statement about this in the coming days.” Ejpress.org reports: Turkey has repeatedly insisted on three conditions for normalisation: the lifting of the Gaza blockade, compensation for the Mavi Marmara victims and ...more »

Doncaster. Famous for the race course, Ed Miliband, and, um, that's it. Not that I'm particularly bothered. It was the idea of tooling up on digital artifacts of a certain vintage that drew comrade @alexdawson1978 and I to the West Riding of Yorkshire this day for the *Retro Collect Video Game Market*. Despite my status as an inveterate video game hunter, I had never been to a proper games market like this one. Car boot sales and one of North Staffordshire's *seven* (you heard that right) retro stockists are my preferred trawling grounds, so I didn't know what to expect. Would it ...more »

Ethnic Cleansing; But By Who and For Who? The Farce of Blood Quantum Requirements! A picture of hypocrisy: Ray Halbritter, slayer of Redskins and protector of Bluebloods. By John Kane, Mohawk Censored News Photo below: John Kane . There is probably no greater threat of extinction to Native peoples than the measure of those people by the irrelevant, scientifically false and

By Paul Homewood http://www.euractiv.com/section/all/news/ets-reform-to-quadruple-refiners-carbon-costs-industry-says/ The next phase of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) will nearly quadruple European refiners’ carbon costs to around 23 euro cents per barrel, up from six cents now, the head of the European refiners’ industry body said on Tuesday. He added to calls from other energy intensive […]

[image: Joy Karega, Oberlin College professor] In what is either anti-semitism or an academic stunt -- or an attempt to find an excuse for anti-semitism she now regrets -- a junior professor at Oberlin College has upset the campus and gathered national attention for a series...more »

[image: Jose Luis Gonzalez Meza, center, one of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman’s lawyers, holds a press conference outside the gates of the Altiplano maximum security prison to announce he would begin a hunger strike in protest over the drug lord's treatment inside the prison, near Toluca, Mexico state, Mexico, Friday, March 4, 2016. The once-secretive Mexican drug lord has launched a public relations blitz, calling on his lawyers and even his common-law wife to keep his name in the news. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)] MEXICO CITY (AP) -- The once-secretive Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Ch...more »

Yesterday Jim Webb, a sometime Democratic, but not really a Democrat, who flirted briefly with running for president as a Democrat, announced on *Morning Joe*-- he certainly went to the perfect venue-- that he would not be voting for Hillary Clinton if she wins the Democratic nomination, but that he is still open to voting for Herr Trumpf. His chief strategist, Mudcat Sanders, has also announced that he wouldn't be voting for Hillary either. They both feel she'll just be a continuation of Obama's policies, although neither talked about which Obama policies need to be changed. Durin...more »

Police in riot gear have taken over Turkey’s opposition newspaper Zaman in a midnight raid using tear gas and water cannons. Turkey’s highest-circulating newspaper is now under state control in another blow to press freedom in President Recep Erdogan’s Turkey. Business Insider UK reports: The government takeover of Today’s Zaman was evidently in response to Erdogan’s perception of the paper as a front for the Gülen movement — a social movement led by the Turkish scholar and preacher Fethullah Gülen that is openly critical of Erdogan’s government. Reporters Without Borders’ secretary...more »

The U.S. is to deploy the B-52 Stratofortress long-range strategic bomber to the Middle East to fight ISIS. The huge nuclear capable jet-powered bomber is made by Boeing and can drop 32 tons of conventional bombs simultaneously. Russia Today reports: The B-52s will replace several Rockwell B-1 Lancer supersonic strategic bombers, which had been striking terrorist positions near Kobani, Syria for several months and have now returned to their base in Texas, the Air Force Times reports. Defense officials also confirmed the information to Fox News. It has not yet been disclosed how many...more »

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I've been 'around' for a few years now, pursuing the shifting goal of a sharable home-made surfers resource site focused on ease of use and variety of mostly adult ( whoa : I didn't say prurient ) content.